Poland may sell to a joint venture of Libyan Tamoil and one of the richest Poles, Jan Kulczyk, daily Rzeczpospolita reported on Saturday quoting treasury ministry's spokesman. The Polish government may ask Orlen and to put up an offer for buying , the newswire added. "Those three companies (Tamoil and Kulczyk joint venture, Orlen and PGNiG) come instantly to mind when we speak about an investor for ," Maciej Wewior, Treasury Ministry's spokesman told Rzeczpospolita.
Our view:
Although industrial investors did not pay to much attention on in the past few months when Treasury lowered its stake to 51%, this time it might be different as Poland gives up its majority position thus effectively allowing an investor to gain majority share in the refiner through a public bid. Investors like or do not seems as proper from budget point of view, moreover the latter is simply not in a position to spend significant money on acquisition. The optimal solution would be Statoil or IPIC, while Serin Investments is likely to spark political debates due to the Libyan capital behind. From minority investors’ point of view, we consider the news as positive. It seems to us that Treasury’s plan to sell another stake in will not cause a share overhang, moreover, it might open a takeover story thus driving the share price higher.